In the field of motor vehicle bodywork fabrication, it is the conventional practice to provide a separate electronics housing for enclosing the vehicle's electronics components, particularly the central control electronics as well as the fuse assembly. In the usual case, the electronics housing is installed after final assembly of the bodywork. German Patent document DE-PS 36 19 183 teaches to position the electronics housing within a "water chamber" of the vehicle bodywork in order to protect against dirt and other contaminants from impairing the operation of integrated electrical components. The "water chamber" is defined as the region, bounded by partition walls, disposed between the passenger compartment and the engine compartment.
Thus, in this design the installation space for the electronics components is formed as a substantially closed, dual enclosure whereby the water chamber, which is comprised of sheet metal parts, forms an outer housing for receiving and securing the electronics housing proper which is typically formed of plastic. The outer housing or water chamber is formed in combination with the vehicle bodywork and is used to accommodate and support the inner plastic electronics housing. Thus, the inner plastic electronics housing by itself does not perform any supportive function for the vehicle bodywork.
Other designs are known from the prior art wherein a plastic electronics housing is placed in some other housing space provided on the bodywork. As is evident, the arrangement of the plastic electronics housing in a specially configured outer housing provided to the bodywork requires an additional consumption of material to fabricate the outer housing. Other disadvantages with these prior art designs include the labor and expense associated with sealing and waterproofing the outer housing formed on the bodywork and the labor and expense involved with securing the electronics housing within the outer housing.
Another problem of the prior art designs involves providing adequate cooling for electronics components within the nested inner and outer housings, since some of the electronics components consume large amounts of power and accordingly give off a lot of heat. To overcome this, it is known in the art to provide a separate fan to cool the enclosed space of the electronics housing. This solution, however, is costly and requires additional components and space requirements.
In accordance with conventional practice, the load bearing frame members of the self-supporting vehicle bodywork typically comprise hollow-section bearers made from at least two deep-drawn metal sheets which are welded together.
The steel sheets used to construct the self-supporting vehicle bodywork are typically shaped in a deep drawing process. While the pressing dies for shaping the steel sheets are relatively expensive, they do permit large production runs and are therefore cost effective for mass production. However, in view of the associated high tooling costs, the described process is very cost-intensive for smaller production runs.
A more cost-favorable solution for small series production in particular is known from European Patent document EP 0 146 716 wherein it is disclosed how to manufacture vehicle bodies for passenger cars having a bearing structure comprising of hollow section bearers which are joined together by joining elements or node connectors. The hollow section bearers are formed as extruded aluminum sections and the node connectors are formed as light metal cast pieces. In addition to being a more cost-favorable solution for small series production, the aluminum bodywork described in EP 0 146 716 is very lightweight and is more resistant to corrosion than a sheet metal bodywork.
Another known vehicle bodywork having a bearing structure formed of extruded light metal hollow section members joined together by light metal cast pieces is disclosed in an article entitled "Aluminum Und Kundstoff IM Verbund-ein Schritt Zur Leichteren Autokarosserie" appearing in Aluminum Journal 64, No. 9 (1988). In this disclosure, the suspension strut mount, being disposed forwardly and inwardly of the A post, is supported along its bottom surface on the respective longitudinal bearer across an extruded section bearer. Furthermore, an extruded section bearer, formed as a suspension strut bearer, connects the suspension strut mount to the middle region of the A-post adjacent the upper portion of the apron or fire wall. However, the integration of an electronics housing within the bodywork is not shown or suggested.
It is also well known in the art to provide the bodywork of passenger cars with wheel arches bounded by sheet metal parts and bearer pieces in the form of stays for mounting fenders. It would be highly desirable to incorporate a housing for the electronics components within an existing known bodywork design without substantial modification or added expense and wherein the proposed electronics housing solution would not require additional cooling apparatus.